ALSO -The Last Furlong Blog and Life on an alien planet.wordpress

Thursday, 14 February 2013

Letter to my MP

Thank you so much for your reply to my letter about "plain" packs. I am
sorry you feel such visual abuse - medical "violenceporn" - fear
inducing subliminals on packets of cigarettes is moral. Cigarettes are
already invisible in shops, and will be in all shops very soon. They
already contain abusive pictures. "Plain" packs are, to my mind, an
attack by the State on a quarter of its citizens. The messages they
carry are nocebos and adverse to the health of smokers. Following what
we know about nocebos, smokers should become sicker quicker. It's a
crime. It should not be supported.

The EU are debating the WHO directives
on the 25th of this month (February). They suggest that "plain"
packaging be left up to Countries to decide - in the UK there were over
250 000 signatures against during our consultation - a greater number
than the pro group. But I should think we'll end up doing what the
Government wants. I suspect the consultation was simply to placate us.

I say all that - but I don't smoke. So I come to another situation
that fills me with a similar desperation. It is about the use of
electronic cigarettes.

The WHO directive, though, is also about
electronic cigarettes, not banning electronic cigarettes outright, but
wants the nicotine content of electronic cigarette e liquid to be set at
4mg of nicotine and become medical devices, which in effect bans them
as they are used now. This will seriously affect the electronic
cigarette community who are now almost a million in the UK of which I am
one.

I am asking you to become knowledgeable about electronic
cigarettes. They are the most extraordinary things. I smoked for 50
years and the more we became marginalised by legislation and public
opinion was turned against smokers, the more determined I became never
to give up smoking. In 2011 I started "vaping" ie. using an electronic
device, and the habit of smoking simply fell away from me - a miracle!
Since then, I have promoted vaping as a solution for devoted smokers
like me to change to a less harmful habit. My life has changed. I am
physically better. The dentist is impressed. The doctor is impressed. My
family is impressed. I am impressed.

As I get older, I become
more horrified by the burden of legislation that is piled on citizens in
a country, by regulators intent on making changes for "our" betterment.
These things should arrive in our consciousnesses with education and
not force. I think many people feel completely disempowered by the kind
of non-democracy they see in the world and the amount of untruth and
spin that is disseminated by various lobby groups, in promoting their
causes (and their jobs!). We have become suspicious and cynical.

I
have written this with great thought. I see one of the problems with
our non-democracy as being that our Members of Parliament get caught up
in the flavour of the current spin - whatever that might be - and it
would be a better country if our politicians were suspicious and cynical
too!

The recommendations from the EU will be taken on by our
Parliament (because they have to). WHO is working to the beat of Tobacco
Control's drum and the huge investment that Drug Companies have made to
profit from Patches, Gums, Sprays to stop people smoking. The fact is
that electronic cigarettes are far more successful in getting people to
quit entirely or - like me - to continue with nicotine usage in a less
harmful manner. I have also written to all my MEP's to try and stop foolish legislation at source..

Here are links to information about
electronic cigarettes which, despite the spin to the contrary HAVE been
studied. In the UK they are already regulated by our own trading bodies. We know a lot about them.

I
hope you find time to investigate the phenomenon of elecronic "vaping"
that is leading to smoking reduction in millions of people worldwide.
They have done this, and are doing it, all by themselves without force,
without any lobby group pushing them or manilpulation from the State.

If
you know about vaping - properly know - you will become an empowered
spokesperson in Parliament for me when the time comes, as it will. I will need to rely on you. You are my voice.

ALSO -The Last Furlong Blog and Life on an alien planet.wordpress

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“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the weather.” Bill Hicks 1961-1994